The REAL deal on Arbonne International

May 18, 2006

My Confession

I am currently avoiding the 2 ladies who recruited me into this Arbonne "opportunity". Why? Well, I'm acting like a coward basically. I have the used pup, a new pup and bits and pieces of Arbonne crap all in a box ready to deliver to these ladies which should be the final step in severing the Arbonne link between us. I could offer the excuse that I am out of town all the time and when I am in town, I just stay very busy with kid stuff, but it really doesn't wash. I often pass by one of the lady's homes on my way out of town so I could easily drop it all off . The fact is that I don't want to hurt her feelings! Ughhhh! Do I think she and the other lady were dishonest? Absolutely. Do I have the courage to tell her that I think so? I'm working on it. There is a very large part of my heart that wishes that I didn't believe what I know to be true only because I will lose 2 friends that although I am no longer that close to, we have history and old times to laugh at. The older I get, the more I want to hang on to that kind of stuff.

There have been several discussions about where the blame should be shifted; Arbonne or the Recruiters? Why not both? I'm mad at the ladies who signed me up because I knew once I was signed up that they knew more than they were willing to give up until after I had signed on. I knew that they had lied to me on several occasions just to sell me the dream. And I knew that they sold me out; plain and simple. Yes, I think they are responsible for the part they played in this mess, but Arbonne built the foundation of their business on lies. Arbonne knows that the REsults Approach (puppy approach) has been used and abused by people like Sibley Gammon to boost their sales volume, but continues to do nothing about it. Arbonne is playing a game with everyone and will keep the game running as long as people are buying into the distributor side of the business. I have no interest in a class action lawsuit, although I've thought about it many times. I would be much happier knowing that companies that operate the way Arbonne operates are exposed for the complete scam that they are. I would wonder if someone was a complete idiot if they told me they were a distributor with AMway......I can only hope that one day the Arbonne name will have the same stigma attached to it.

There have been countless posters on this board who have spoken of friendships lost and relationships turned awkward. Before I gave up completely on Arbonne, what I was hanging on to was a hope that even though the company itself was dishonest, maybe I could find a way to do the business honestly. I've read many posts from new consultants who discovered the truth in much the same way I did. I can tell that they too would like to find a way to do this business honestly. Unfortunately, the Policies and Procedure is just another smokescreen that Arbonne hides behind to excuse away all the nasty behavior of their reps. Besides all the other lies Arbonne continues to allow the circulation of, the fact that the company can't even hold itself to the Policies and Procedures is proof enough that the company isn't legit. I don't buy the claim that there are Nations out there running this business honestly. I can accept that they might think they are running it honestly, and may have even convinced themselves that the lies Arbonne feeds them through meetings, seminars, Learn & Burns, and books are true. But deep down there is a voice warning them and for now they will ignore it because the hope of the dream Arbonne promises is just too strong.

For any of you about to post that I am just bitter and sad, please come up with something more creative. I live a very full life. This blog does not consume me and I am a very happy person.

Comments

I totally understand. Ever since I found out all the nasty stuff about Mary Kay, I found that I cannot keep up my relationship with my former recruiter.
It comes down to this: I felt I was scammed, and although my recruiter didn't intentionally hurt me, I know her attitude toward my financial loss would not be very sympathetic. She is all about Mary Kay; ergo we don't have anything in common any more.
This is what MLM does: it destroys relationships.

Well, I've been waiting for this post so that I can share a little of my own weird experience. I was brought into this business by the ex-wife of the man I plan to marry. When she started telling me about it, I was excited to listen, because there had been some ups and downs with her, due to their daughter's sometimes problems adjusting to my relationship with her father. When she started acting so friendly to me, I was ecstatic! I never wanted to be her friend necessarily, but I definitely wanted a good relationship to make it easier on all of us.

So when she presented the opportunity to me, she knew exactly how to spin it for me. Since she happens to know a lot about her ex-husband's financial burdens (the one he pays to her every month), she knew that the money factor would speak to me. It did. It wasn't out of greed, it was just out of the wish for the financial resources to get married, buy a house, and be a stay at home mom.

Well, I signed on the dotted line and put myself in this woman's hands. I was uncomfortable from the very beginning. I realized very quickly that I had just subordinated myself to someone whom I can't afford to have looking down on me. The fact that I am so much younger than both her and my guy already had set me up for plenty of age discrimination, and now she was my sponsor. The person I have to listen to and beg advice from and be given positive thinking speeches by and expose to my financial situation enough to know that I couldn't get approved for the Arbonne credit card (thank God for that).

Well, her condescending and psychological manipulation of me did not last very long. I am too independent and averse to authority to put up with that. I avoided her for the most part, and she kinda dropped me after my qualification for DM passed and I was nowhere even close. Then she emailed me wanting me to re-launch my business and she can help and if I'm just trainable and listen to her and it's simple but it is a lot of hard work...more condescending you lazy piece of crap rhetoric.

My guy made me call her and tell her that I was not doing the business anymore. I was as polite as possible, cuz I can't afford to have her venom aimed at me (trust me, she's scary when she wants to be), but I told her I might still do it for fun, so keep me in the loop. I was immediately taken off the email lists, hers and our NVP's.

Now I haven't had to see her in a while, until baseball season started up again. She has barely spoken to me except to rub in how warm it was in St. Louis while it was so cold here. So, this woman who used to speak so proudly of the fact that we can deal with the reason that we are acquainted and still appreciate each other and even like each other won't even talk to me now. I'm hurt and I'm so sick of being treated like such a loozer right to my face, but I can't do jack s#$% about it, because she would royally screw the kids' dad over it. And trust me, she would.

So that's my story, that's where my anger comes from. Sorry so long, I just wanted a chance to finally get it out.

Until the bottom falls out and she's screwed and broke, decides to blame current hubby (mine was her third, this is her fourth), dumps him, traumatizes the children (four of them including his, all doing the blended family calling both parent and step-parent mom and dad thing), and she moves further away from where we moved to live closer to the kids, and then probably hauls my guy into court to try for more child support. All this until she finds the "better company." She would never ever admit that she's made a mistake with this kind of thing, she'll just continue to move through them, faulting everything but herself. Oh, and she admits freely how she is using her credit card as her "investment" in her business.

Trust me, I don't find it one bit funny that she's in the fog and I got out, I am truly scared about what this business can potentially do to 3 people I love very very much.

I just started buying the Arbonne products and signed on just to get a discount. I was searching the net to get a feel of Arbonne's reputation. I'm an already an entreprenuer and I've had countless experiences, trying various networking-based companies, when I was younger. I've gone through all of the written material and checked their website. It seems legit and even practical. I am kind of excited. No one is pressing me to do anything and it seems I can do everything independently of other contultants, except for if I have a question, which I haven't yet. I know the intense emotions that are able to be stirred by a boyfriend or husband's ex, and honestly I would totally react in the same way. I NEED to know if Arbonne is a waste of time. So my question to you is, are you mad at Arbonne for reasons that have nothing to do with your guy's ex? Have you discovered their products to be junk? Have you had problems with orders or anything that no one would help you with? Did you find that no one makes money like they say they do? That Arbonne never mails your pay? Anything serious like that? Or is it just that your sponser is an idiot who misrepresented the company and did it all wrong?

spaceangel: from what I gather, people here are pissed because Arbonne's sales force is operating as an outright pyramid scam, and hurting a lot of people.
There are always the usual issues about people lying about their income (this is the norm for all MLMs), but have you looked at all the info on the AIRD/Swiss lab hoax?
This company allows it representatives to tell bald-faced lies about the company and the products, and appears to be a garden-variety MLM scam.
You sound like you might need to do some more research on MLMs/pyramid scams in general, if you think they are a good way to do business.
There are links in the sidebar to help you out.

Lady Swisse, Ya know, my little sob story pales in comparison to what you are dealing with. Have you wanted to talk to her about why the two of you hardly talk anymore? What does your guy think about all this?

To all of the negative Arbonne haters I have to say get over it. I think those of you who do not follow a business plan and fail do just that "Fail" and want to blame the world. Why not just say it did not work for you and that you failed. This company has been great for a lot of people. So what if the AIRD lab could possibly be a lab for other companies. I know the lab that my General doctor uses is the same one my OBGYN doctor uses with a different name. That does not make my test results any different. Face it, the products are wonderful and the oppportunity is there.... you just actually have to work. Like they say, it is net"work" marketing, NOT net"lazy" marketing. I hope spreading your negative opinion makes you feel better now go find something else to do with your time.

I love Arbonne and I am so glad I was introduced to the products and the company!

Stephanie,
Everytime one of you "arbonne" consultants writes in you always use the word "hate" or "bitter" very interesting to me. You have no clue what anyone did trying to succeed at this business (business, hee hee that truly makes me laugh) I did not fail in this PYRAMID. I chose to quit because of the lies and deceit that I witnessed daily!! You obviously have no work ethic what so ever if you think nothing is wrong with LYING about labs, stats of growth, ownership of company(hee, hee) product ingredients, sign up fee's, policy and proceedures, who "invented" the puppydog approach (hee, hee) worldwide expansion, etc..etc..etc.. Who do you work for? You just admitted it doesn't matter what the company states about their labs not existing or that they "share" them with other companies ,who cares?? I do. It is false. It is a lie. It is misleading. It is manipulating. It is false advertisment. It is wrong. It is a CRIME. Also, I must say the fact that your OBGYN shares a lab or office with your general doctor is WAY TOO MUCH INFORMATION and flashbacks of Little House On The Prairie is all that comes to mind. GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please Please go drink your koolaid and go to sleep in your fog. This forum is not for you. The Arbot, Arbi----- and Arbonne fight song is getting so old.
By the way, I would really think twice before calling strangers lazy. Shouldn't you be on a conference call? The end of the month is on it's way!!!! VOLUME VOLUME VOLUME!!!!!!!!!

Spaceangel, if you can see through the venom (its true ladies. I know your true intentions and issues with arbonne, but most of you come off very harsh), most of the issues here are with the uplines people have had. I totally disagree regarding the "lab hoax." I don't think it is a big deal that they share a space and I don't think Arbonne the company has lied. Do I think they handle everything perfectly? Probably not, but from what I have experienced, Arbonne the company tries to be above reproach. Now, this is when Nortongirl will tell you about her experience with the VP, but that is her experience. I can only tell you mine. Yes, I think it is a bit misleading calling it the Arbonne Institute of Research and Development, but I have said before, and I am ready to be pounced, that is marketing, not lying. What else our they going to call it? "Our products are formulated at a rented lab space in Switzerland that is used for many different companies but when we are using it, we have our name on it." Not gonna happen. AIRD is supposedly a group of chemist, not a particular building. Anyways, MY EXPERIENCE with arbonne has been this: I love the products and so do most of my family. That is why I looked into the business part. I have had awesome experience with arbonne directly as far as orders, time frames, customer service, products, payment of overrides, and even response from the company when I had a complaint. They were very concerned and I am still dealing with that issue. The "business side" has been smooth. My issue has been with my upline. They are GREEDY. You can try to build a business with arbonne, but with so many consultants pushing for the car in record time, I think eventually the name arbonne will convey scam to many people, instead of good products. This will make it harder for you to build your customer base if people aren't willing to try the products b/c they have already been given the "arbonne talk" and didn't want to drop 2k.

Well here is some real truth from Arbonne in their words. You can’t deny this one. I have a request in for the names of the contracted companies and the names of the companies Arbonne is listed under these contracts. Will they hang themselves more than they did with this e-mail? The exclusiveness (my opinion) is starting to fade.

Cat, never belittle your own experience. The ruin of relationships, especially old ones, is a tragedy. I've had to go to many friends with my tail between my legs to apologize if I seemed weird when I was trying this. The one just mentioned a friend who won't even hang out with her MK friend anymore because she turns everything into MK. She said that they were worried the same thing would happen to me. When your best friend of 25 years lets you know that she might have had to stop talking to you if you continued down this path, it's a mind blower.

Anyway, no I can't talk to her because she is a very controlling and manipulative person. Her reality is the only one that exists. She told her own mother that if she couldn't be supportive to her face then she was going to stop talking to her for a while. I mention it a little to my guy, and it worries him because I think he knows that my mouth has been known to fly on its own once or twice and he can't afford to have me blow up at her, so he just tries to keep me in perspective, like do I really want to talk to her anyway? Truly, I don't, I just know that she's looking down on me, and I have a lot of insecurities about that.

He won't even let her find out that I just took a bartending job, because of what she'll say or think about that. You know, get up on her high horse and spout about how she doesn't have to work two jobs because Arbonne works for her. Personally, I love bartending, and I'm at a place where I will be waiting on a lot of my old customers from another place. For me, it's a few hours a week that are going to make me some really good money for my savings account. Money that's all mine, never has to be paid back to anyone, and only depends on me keeping my customers in the bar and happy.

So, I won't be sharing my true feelings with her at least until he and I are married, and maybe not even then. Anything I do will have repercussions on him. She will and has used those children against him (threatens his time with them, etc) if anything gets her knickers in a twist. That's a consequence not worth my mental piece of mind. I just have to learn to deal with it on my own, stop worrying about what she thinks of me, and learn to be happy and confident in who I am. Is there a shrink in the house?

I don't blame you for not feeling comfortable talking to her, Lady Swisse. She sounds like a major headcase. It is so ridiculous that she is going to continue to plague you, her ex and her children with her freaky, controlling ways. I just feel really bad for you because you are worrying about this alone. I know you don't want to get your guy all worked up, but it's totally not fair that you are the one carrying the burden. He Married Her!!! Sorry, I haven't had my coffee yet and I may be a little irritable. Your guy and his children are truly lucky to have you in their lives.

Blastingpowder and everyone else who believes the "lab hoax." WAKE UP! There is no hoax here and I believe arbonne's response backs up what they claim. Maybe you should spend your time researching how most companies research and develop the products and formulas. Not many companies own their own brick building for research. Why is it a big deal that arbonne rents out lab space for research??? I have known as a consultant that arbonne has researching done all over the world to get the purest ingredients. Maybe instead of listening to some stupid NVP making false claims, or relying on a picture of the the Arval building with ARbonnes names (still not a big deal people), you should get a hold of actual cd's that consultants can get from arbonne giving the knowledge we need. I will try to dig mine out and if you want them, let me know.
I highly doubt this is the death of arbonne, but the death of this attempt to bring down arbonne.

Cat, trust me, he listens when I complain about her, but compared to his complaints on her, I pretty much got nuthin. He's been dealing with her ever since she got el prego on purpose (I know, two to tango, but that doesn't mean she didn't plan it). She has done some really crazy things to him, and she has threatened to take them away so many times that he just cowers to her anytime she screws with him. I know what he's going through, so my goal is to just help him gain the confidence he needs to understand his rights and learn when to fight her on certain things. Right now she's a bit more calm because she's married, but if that ends, she will become unhinged. We are just careful and nervous most of the time. She's a good mom, and the kids are really great kids, which is definitely a testament to her and their dad, she just has a warped sense of reality.

Well, she's really lucky too! You must have the patience of a saint....or do you just get drunk a lot? Kidding, well not really cuz I think I'd end up getting drunk a lot if I had to deal with a manipulative ex like her. Sounds like you are being very supportive of your guy and this situation. That's just what he and the kids need. I bet he is very grateful to you.

Barbara:
you need to wake up. That letter from Arbonne states the same crap that I was told in the phone last wonter, with some "new info" thrown in about different labs in France, U.S., etc.
Nobody said that contracting work is unusual or a "hoax" - what we said is that AIRD does not exist. Arbonne did up with ANY ADDRESSES or PHONE NUMBERS.
Also, there is still the matter of the Arval woman saying that "Arbonne and AIRD have never been customers of this facility" - what the hell does that mean? If they had their paper sign pasted to the building, but were never customers...
You know there is something inherently sneaky about this.
Arbonne just wants to inflate their Swiss claims. Did you notive at the end of the letter (where they did not give out any real info about their contracted labs) it says "our competition is just trying to stir the pot" because "we're experiencing phenomenal growth"

That's the most ludicrous part - their "competition" had nothing to do with this. But if you are an brain-addled Arbot, you automatically go
"Oh yeah! they're just gellous of us! That's why they're tryin' to make us look stoopid!"

Can you not see how dumb this is? But even if you don't, it's okay. We just presented all the evidence, and the general public that comes to these blogs can make up their own minds. I posted ALL of the photos and communication with Arbonne as well as the rep. of Arval.

Tha fact is that Arbonne deliberately allows information to be misrepresented because people are still willing to shell out the dough. Don't tell me that this is a business that helps people! HOw can being lied to help people? It's no big deal that Arbonne has misrepresented what AIRD really is? So, I wonder how pissed any of you would be at me if I posted an ad here on my blog listing a great vacation package for $300 and that includes transportation and accommodations. Would you not be upset to discover that the transportation was a bicycle and that the accomodations was a tent?

Oh Cat, you're going to have to visit me now. Of course I get drunk a lot, every day if I can manage. LOL, well maybe not every day anymore, my work problem gets in the way of my drinking habit lately. ;)

Yeah, I definitely signed on for a tough spot, but if you knew JOL, you'd understand why. Some people are just worth it. He's my best friend, and he needs me, even though sometimes I have to beat him over the head with a 2 x 4 to show him that he needs me. Now, if he could just appreciate me enough by way of my damn rock.....He probably already has it and is just enjoying my frustration at not having it too much to actually propose.